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Saturday was such a great day filled with a little lunch with some bloggers, the Chictopia10 conference and the Chictopia 10 after party! We woke up, got ready and headed out to the streets of Chinatown to navigate our way to a bakery! We were like... eyeing cabs watching them pass and I was like, alright small town girl, you get out there.. and I hailed my first NYC cab! Go Tieka! We got to the bakery and there was a two hour wait, so we ended up down the street at Frankie's. Very cute place! Afterwards, Nickie from Wild as a Mink directed us to an amazing candy shop! Of course, I got my fix of Swedish Fish. Then, we got more cabs to head to the conference! Andrea was kind enough to take photos of everyone. Thanks, girl!

The conference brought about mixed feelings for me! On one hand, it was amazing because it brought all of my favorite bloggers to the same city to meet and talk about fashion, see each other in real life, network and have a total blast. I loved listening to the speakers, was so excited to have people approach me to tell me they read my blog and love it and to see so many girls that I adore. I was so excited to meet some girls who already felt like my friends, like Emily and Jasmine. It was so great to see them. I sat behind Jane Aldridge from Sea of Shoes and although I was like... I'd be such a dork if I said hi, she smiled at me and seemed so sweet! Keiko from Keiko Lynn also smiled and waved at me and I was like.. me?! You're smiling and waving at me?! I was so excited! Haha! On the other hand, the conference was a mess. The set-up was awful until they moved the chairs around finally, they had major issues with the audio and shortened everyone's eardrum's life by at least a year, everything was disorganized, it was freezing in there and I didn't get to network or learn as much as I would have liked. I felt like it was pointed more towards brands approaching bloggers, but a lot of bloggers were the ones in attendance! I would have liked to learn more about blogging and how to better approach my blog. I did learn a few things, but I would have liked to have gotten more out of it. Hopefully next year! I'm definitely going to go to the IFB's event next year. I heard great things about it. I'm super sad I missed out!

After the conference, we headed back to the hotel to sit around and relax for a few minutes. I got a minute to talk to Brett and I honestly missed him so much this weekend. Next fall when I go back for fashion week, he's definitely coming with me. He can scour the city for sweet vinyl while I'm a girl. I really don't like the fact that I experienced something so great without him. I mean, girl's night obviously I wanted on my own, but I would have really liked to head back to the hotel, lay next to him and bed and tell him everything. All of the good and the bad. And he won't judge me, not even for a second. I typed out a long list of "grr's" from the weekend, but I slowly clicked delete backwards. This blog is to remember the great times and I honestly did have a great time. The after party at the Tribeca Grand Hotel was alright! The hotel was gorgeous.. very high-class fancy pants! I loved so much meeting Annie from Time Enough for Drums. At the conference, we were eating these powdered pastries and giggling and blowing powdered sugar everywhere. She was so amazing!

I met these girls earlier at brunch which was great! Everyone is seriously so much prettier in real life.. I mean they're all gorgeous in their photos, but in real life I was honestly just like.. wow. I'm surrounded by such classic beauties! I was so excited to get photos with all of my favorites bloggers who I read all of the time and feel like I know already! Christina from Second Skin, Mel from Idee Geniale and Emily from The Daily Fashionista. Loved these girls. Seriously so sweet too, all of them. I wish we had more time to talk. The music was so loud in there!

It was amazing because I already got a chance to hang out with and get to know Kim (and Melissa!) from Crowded Closet from Friday night. Such fantastic girls. They looked flawless and they have the sweetest personalities!

And JASMINE from Transient Withdrawal! Gosh, I love this girl. She is seriously so freaking sweet. Her and Robert were dancing on the dance floor and I was cracking up because it was the cutest thing in the world. I got to know Jasmine quite well through blogging, even shared some snail mail with her and felt such a personal connection meeting her. It was so amazing how she won the grand prize of the Chictopia10 contest and got a chance to see NY and snow for the first time! Amazing. Love this girl.

Now it's back to the daily boring ol' posts here in cold little ol' Michigan! And I'm actually really excited. I feel like I have a newfound love for my little life here. New York was great, but too busy for me and smelly. Of course, we were in Chinatown. "We have bedbug spray for sell" signs and I'm surprised I didn't see chopped chicken heads hanging from the awnings. Barf! I'd much prefer walking the sidewalks of Grand Haven with the scent of beach town air, a vanilla/chocolate twist in hand with ballet flats and warm wind with the sound of boats and waves and perfection. That's my life! And I couldn't be more content. Glad to be home!